DUBAI // A hoax caller who delayed an Emirates Airline flight in Mumbai by claiming two passengers were terrorists will be prosecuted if found, a senior Indian police officer said yesterday.
Brijesh Singh, the deputy commissioner of Mumbai Police, said the identity of the caller was still unknown, but pledged he would be caught.
"We will charge him as soon as he is identified," he said, by telephone from the Indian city.
The caller identified himself as Suresh Chavan, which is believed to have been a fake name, police said. The hoaxer told airport officials on Sunday morning that the passengers, who were travelling on Emirates flight EK 505, were operatives of the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba.
Air-traffic controllers at Mumbai International Airport immediately recalled the aircraft, which was about to take off for Dubai before continuing on to Manchester, England. The plane was moved to an isolated area where passengers and luggage were checked. The couple was removed from the plane and questioned.
The flight finally took off after a four-hour delay.
Police confirmed that the couple were released on Sunday night after it was established they did not have any connection with terrorism.
pmenon@thenational.ae
Marathon results
Men:
1. Titus Ekiru(KEN) 2:06:13
2. Alphonce Simbu(TAN) 2:07:50
3. Reuben Kipyego(KEN) 2:08:25
4. Abel Kirui(KEN) 2:08:46
5. Felix Kemutai(KEN) 2:10:48
Women:
1. Judith Korir(KEN) 2:22:30
2. Eunice Chumba(BHR) 2:26:01
3. Immaculate Chemutai(UGA) 2:28:30
4. Abebech Bekele(ETH) 2:29:43
5. Aleksandra Morozova(RUS) 2:33:01
HAEMOGLOBIN DISORDERS EXPLAINED
Thalassaemia is part of a family of genetic conditions affecting the blood known as haemoglobin disorders.
Haemoglobin is a substance in the red blood cells that carries oxygen and a lack of it triggers anemia, leaving patients very weak, short of breath and pale.
The most severe type of the condition is typically inherited when both parents are carriers. Those patients often require regular blood transfusions - about 450 of the UAE's 2,000 thalassaemia patients - though frequent transfusions can lead to too much iron in the body and heart and liver problems.
The condition mainly affects people of Mediterranean, South Asian, South-East Asian and Middle Eastern origin. Saudi Arabia recorded 45,892 cases of carriers between 2004 and 2014.
A World Health Organisation study estimated that globally there are at least 950,000 'new carrier couples' every year and annually there are 1.33 million at-risk pregnancies.